Ryan Coogler reveals the horror films that shaped him the most as a fan and filmmaker before releasing his own terrifying take on the genre with “Sinners”….
Ryan Coogler has tackled some real life horrors in his past films but now he’s actually taking a big step into the genre with the release of his latest film “Sinners,” which lands in theaters on Friday.
Hailed as one of the best directors in recent history, Coogler has created nothing but critically acclaimed films thus far in his career starting with “Fruitvale Station” and then continuing to build on his legacy with movies like “Creed” and “Black Panther.” With “Sinners,” Coogler is once again teaming up with his old friend Michael B. Jordan with this movie taking place in the 1930s when a pair of twin brothers return home to Mississippi to open a juke joint but they soon discover that the town is now inhabited by some nocturnal creatures not of this world.
While “Sinners” is his first true horror film, Coogler has long loved the genre and his passion actually started when he was terrified himself as a child when he was shown some movies he was definitely too young to handle.
“I had older cousins and one of their favorite things to do was show me ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and freak me the hell out,” Coogler told Interview Magazine. “The Jason movies, too. I think in Black culture, especially coming up at that time, there was an appreciation for horror.”
Coogler admits as he got older, his appreciation for horror grew but also changed due to the type of films that were being released during his formative years.
“Then something happened in the ’90s, where—I talked to Jordan Peele about this—but everything was in the hood, you feel me?” Coogler said. “It was ‘Tales from the Hood,’ ‘Candyman,’ even the ‘Leprechaun’ movies. They had ‘Leprechaun’ in the hood, bro.
“I loved them. It was something I connected with even before I knew I wanted to make movies, but once I went to film school, I started to make the things that could easily access what was in my heart. That ended up being dramas.”
While dramas and action films ended up taking center stage for his first four films, Coogler injected a lot of his family into “Sinners” with inspiration he took from his uncle, who loved blues music after growing up in Mississippi. That set the stage for Coogler to craft the story for “Sinners.”
As far as other horror films that he loved, Coogler also pointed out movies that blurred the line in the genre, which is something he also sought to do with “Sinners.”
“I consider [Steven] Spielberg’s work in the horror space to be a bit of a North Star,” Coogler told Deadline. “And it is complicated with him, right, because he hasn’t out and out made a horror movie before. But I would classify ‘Jaws’ as a creature feature horror film, and ‘Jurassic Park’ as well. ‘Jurassic Park’ is a stealth horror movie.
“The whole thing of, what if dinosaur were real? But when you talk about those T-Rex scenes, the Velociraptor intro, the ‘raptors in the Kitchen, that is out and out horror cinema. And it is popular. It is visceral. It gets the audience feeling like they’re on a damn roller coaster ride.”
Coogler also revealed that his parents were huge John Carpenter fans with movies like “Halloween” and “The Thing” but when it came to more modern movies, he pointed to one particular film that had such an impact on him that he actually ended up hiring somebody from that project to work with him on “Sinners.”
“There’s this movie that came out in 2015 called ‘Green Room’ … Oh, it’s fantastic ... And it is basically like the house of horrors movie played for real over 24 hours. This semi-pro punk band gets stuck in a venue in rural Oregon that’s owned by neo-Nazis that are led by Patrick Stewart. And it is brilliant, bro.
“And the makeup effects are so stark that I hired the guy that did them, for ‘Sinners.’ A guy named Mike Fontaine, who’s exceptional, a savant. He’s the guy who put the penguin prosthetics on Colin Farrell for that show.”
From the sound of things, Coogler really does love horror films and if “Sinners” is successful — and all signs are pointing in that direction — perhaps he’ll stick around and contribute more to the genre in the future.
“Sinners” opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, April 18.
